The Vim editor started as "Vi IMitation" on the Amiga in 1988, but was later relabeled "Vi IMproved"[2] and ported to many other platforms. As vi was a popular editor amongst programmers and system administrators, initially there was doubt whether Bram's 'improved' version could achieve the quality and fan following of the original. But since its first release for Unix systems in 1992, Vim has effectively eclipsed the original Vi, having won several awards[3] and has been referred to as one of the most popular text editors.[4][5][6]

Bram promotes charity and encourages people to support orphans in Uganda. He pioneered a methodology called charityware through his Vim editor.[7] The software itself is available for free, but it encourages the user to donate to the programmer's favorite charity. A number of other applications have been licensed this way since the inception of this concept.

Other software tools that Moolenaar has developed include a software build tool written in Python, called A-A-P, which is similar to make, and a programming language called Zimbu[8] which puts an emphasis on readability of programs. Bram is also an assurer for the non-profitcertificate authorityCAcert, which means that he is eligible to verify the identities of people using the CAcert web of trust model. Amongst all of Moolenaar's contributions to the field of computer science, the Vim editor remains his most prominent and widely used application.

Moolenaar has been a member of a Dutch Unix user group, NLUUG, which presented him with an award[9] during its 25th anniversary, for his creation of Vim and his contributions to open source software in general.

As of October 2012[update], Moolenaar works at Google,[10] working in the Zürich office since July 2006. He is also the maintainer and release manager of the Vim editor.